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Cardinal Tetra in QT Looks Injured or Sick

Hello,

I am unable to get a good pic, but there is a cardinal tetra in new-fish-quarantine that I noticed has something going on with his right pectoral fin. I am unsure if it was wounded or there is some sort of infection. It appears to be sticking out horizontally and quite visible relative to the pectoral fins on my other cardinals (Both the others in QT and the ones in my display tanks). I've never dealt with a fish ailment before so I don't have experience knowing what my next steps are. It may or may not be a little fuzzy, it's hard for me to see all that well although occasionally at certain angle it almost looks like there's a translucent "bubble" around his fin.

To my untrained eye it appears that it may have been injured (I had cut up PVC pipes in the QT as well as plastic plants; i since removed the PVC in case the fish had gotten hurt on a rough edge or something). The fin appears to be slightly white-ish. The fish is not acting weird in any way, he's not flashing or anything and there are no other worrisome signs in him or other fish. However I can't help but wonder if it may be infected.

Without a DSLR I find it difficult to take a good picture and get a better look at this. I've been in front of the tank with a flashlight and camera for about an hour each of today and yesterday trying to get good pics for this post.

He is in the center of this shot:

and again is in the front right of this shot:

Thanks for any advice...

1. What is the size of your tank?

10 Gallons Quarantine Tank (New fish)

2. What are your water parameters? State the brand of test kit used.

0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, < 20 Nitrate per API Kit. Fish have only been in tank 3 days following a month+ fishless cycle.

3. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or brackish water?

Freshwater.

4. How long the aquarium has been set up?

6 Weeks, fishless cycling.

5. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them?

10 very small cardinal tetras that have been in the tank for 3 days, undergoing new livestock quarantine.

6. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)?

Yes they are currently in quarantine

7. What temperature is the tank water currently?

78 F

8. Are there live plants in the aquarium?

No

9. What filter are you using?

AquaClear 30, seeded with Eheim EfhiSubstrat from a 1 year old tank, and then fishlessly cycled for one month with ammonia.

0. Any other equipment used (aside from heater and filter which are two very important components of the tank)?

No

11. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? What is your lighting schedule (assuming you do not rely on sunlight for our viewing pleasure)?

Yes a little bit of incidental light through kitchen window; there are curtains to block this. No other lights on tank.

12. When did you perform your last water change and how much water was changed? How often do you change your water? Do you vacuum the substrate?

I change 20-40% of water daily and siphon out the poop during QT period.

13. What foods do you provide your fish? What is the feeding schedule?

They have only been fed a total of 4 or 5 flakes in the 3 days I have had them (Day 2 and Day 3, 2 flakes each day that they all got a little bit of)

14. What unusual signs have you observed in your fish?

No unusual behavior, just what I have observed described above.

15. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? If so, what treatments did you use? State your reasons for planning ahead of proper diagnosis.

No treatment performed yet; In 1.5 years of fishkeeping this is the first time Iíve had an ailment with a fish that I may need to deal with if itís not something that heals itself.

Note: this isn't new from yesterday, I also noticed it but wasn't 100% positive till I got a better look.

Another cardinal in this QT tank also has something funky going on with what looks like a similar "bubble" right where his mouth is and another next to or near his eye. These are little buggers and hard to get a good view, I need to get a light hood on this tanks so I can stop chasing the fish with a flashlight to get looks.

These aren't "white", so I don't think they are ich, they don't look like "sprinkles of salt" but there is definitely something going on.

The fish aren't acting listless or behaving differently than the other fish in the tank. From the looks of it though I can't even tell if the one with the thing near its mouth would be able to eat though. I'm starting to get pretty anxious about this but don't want to bomb the tank with anything unless I get more input on if these are fungi, bacteria, or what, and what I should do. : /

I need to get a light hood on this tanks so I can stop chasing the fish with a flashlight to get looks

Well I got off my butt and fixed the light so I could run this down further.

Here are some pictures of what I'm talking about. I also made an attempt to video, because that way I could manually zoom by moving the camera back and forth; most informative shots are of the "fin" infected fish at seconds 00:23 - 00:27, and of the mouth one from seconds 00:44 - 00:57.

well pretty much all bacteria or fungus. is there a recommended broad-based treatment method? I would hate for the other 8 to all be affected and me to lose the whole batch in QT, especially if I can help out the 2 that are currently having issues : /

well pretty much all bacteria or fungus. is there a recommended broad-based treatment method? I would hate for the other 8 to all be affected and me to lose the whole batch in QT, especially if I can help out the 2 that are currently having issues : /

I am going to begin treatment tonight with labelled dosing of both Melafix and Pimafix.

Today is Day 6 of the treatment. The affected fish do not appear to have any changes in symptoms, except maybe the one with two growths which appear to have gotten larger. The other fish are still all the same.